Page 10 - DesMoinesRiver

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
“Prehistory” and “history” are terms used by
archaeologists and historians to indicate the
presence or absence of written records. Histo-
rians study the past using books, letters, jour-
nals, deeds, maps, and other forms of written
documents. Historic archaeologists use these
records along with artifacts, architecture, and
other structures to study the period that begins
with the advent of written documentation in any
given area. The prehistoric period covers all of
the time before the introduction of writing. To
learn about past lives, prehistoric archaeologists
have only the material objects that people left
behind and evidence of the ways that they modi-
fied their environment.
A total of 767 archaeological sites have been
recorded in Van Buren County, 578 of these are
within 2 miles of the Des Moines River. Much of
the county, however, has not been systematically
studied, and the number of sites recorded is
probably only a fraction of what actually exists.
Archaeological surveys near Bonaparte (Hirst
1985) and at Cedar Bluff State Preserve (Peter-
son and Wendt 1999) suggest that site density
along the river could be as high as 10.2 sites per
100 acres (Artz 2004:45).
Documented archaeological properties include
prehistoric Native American-, historic Native
American-, and historic Euro-American-sites.
The types of prehistoric sites include villages,
short term camps, lithic workshops, shell mid-
dens, mounds and other earthworks, burials,
quarries, and trails. Few of these sites have been
the subject of controlled scientific investigations.
10 A River of Unrivaled Advantages—Life Along the Lower Des Moines River
The most Archaeological sites recorded within two
common artifacts miles of the Des Moines River corridor.
found include flakes
of rock generated when Historic properties in-
making stone tools, fire-cracked clude Native American and
rocks from hearths and ovens, large Euro-American sites. Important
pecked-stone tools used as hammers, chop- historic sites like Iowaville (13VB124) tell
pers and grinding stones, and large quantities the story of native communities which were try-
of fragmented animal bone and shell. Most of ing to survive in the rapidly changing cultural and
these artifacts appear in Native American sites political milieu. Euro-American historical proper-
throughout the prehistoric period and even into ties include archaeological sites, architecture, and
the historic period so that many sites cannot be industrial structures which document settlement
assigned to a specific time. Nevertheless, their and economic development as the Des Moines
presence provides testimony to the activities of River became a route for westward expansion.
prehistoric Native Americans as they went about
their daily tasks hunting, collecting and process-
ing plant, animal, and stone resources, cooking
food, and interring their dead. Archaeological
surveys indicate a pattern of large base camps
established along the Des Moines River and
smaller, short-term camps scattered widely
across the landscape where people concentrated
on specific tasks.